Mills, Wyo.-based high density polyethylene pipe maker W.L. Plastics Corp. is building a new extrusion facility in Elizabethtown, Ky., set to come online in spring 2010, local officials said.
W.L. Plastics extrudes smooth-wall pressure pipe for the natural gas, water, sewer and irrigation markets, among others.
The plant, sitting on 17 acres, will employ about 40, according to a news release from the Elizabeth/Hardin County (Ky.) Industrial Foundation.
W.L. Plastics has pipe-making facilities in Mills and Gillette, Wyo.; Cedar City, Utah; Bowie, Texas; and Crossfield, Alberta. Company officials could not be reached for comment.
The plastic pipe market has been quite active in 2009, in terms of companies gearing up for the construction industry's revival. Several pipe makers have added capacity this year.
A longtime HDPE fittings fabricator is joining the extrusion market with a new plant in Abbeville, S.C. Independent Pipe Products Inc. is opening a 64,000-square-foot plant for smooth-wall HDPE pressure pipe, including a large-diameter 65-inch line from American Maplan.
Independent Pipe also is installing three KraussMaffei extrusion lines capable of extruding pipe diameters up to 24 inches.
In Eugene, Ore., a group of former PW Eagle officials started their own PVC conduit manufacturing firm — Ridgeline Pipe Manufacturing LLC. The company is running four extrusion lines in a two-building, 54,000-square-foot plant.
The market leader in corrugated HDPE, Hilliard, Ohio-based Advanced Drainage Systems Inc., this summer opened a new pipe extrusion facility in Kitchener, Ontario, and will soon open another near Drummondville, Quebec, where the company has a distribution yard.
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